From the early 1500’s to the mid 1900’s Europeans have been known for their success in colonizing foreign territories. The Dutch, British, Portuguese, French and Germans were the main European groups who throughout the 15th and 19th century felt the need to take over beneficial countries to improve their power. The desire for money, goods, territory and empire building led the Europeans to all search around the world in hopes of finding a weaker country with raw materials to take over. In Western Africa, the main European forces that colonized most of the western area were the Portuguese, the French and the British. Like in many other parts of the world, the European countries were invading, conquering and controlling the goods that West Africa had to provide; much like the East Indian Company (British) in India. From the early 1500’s until the late 1900’s the Portuguese, the French and the British came into West Africa and began to increase trade, overpower and become racial towards the Africans and turn a tribal country into a strict European ruling type of government. With the Europeans in charge, the way of life, expenses and laws/rules quickly began to change for the benefit of the Portuguese, French and British.

The main reason for European colonization was to boost up the Europeans’ economy. In West Africa many of the countries such as the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria were blessed with many resources and raw materials that the Portuguese, French and British could acquire and trade with other countries in exchange for other goods or money. Another main attraction to Africa, were the available slaves that the French and British shipped to the Americas for cheap labor. The slaves were so demanded that the European nations began the Atlantic slave trade in the 16th century and shipped many slaves to the new world in order to be able to produce multiple products and not have to pay the workers. The constant...

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Britain’s Continued Influences in WestAfrica
The main goal of colonialism was to extract the economic benefits for the colonizing empire and England was just that, it wanted to exploit the natural resources and established a profitable setting for its settler colonies in Africa. England’s approach of direct rule, limited the rights to Africans, which affected English rule as well as their post colonial relationships with neighboring countries. With England’s influences in every aspect of African life, European culture was also introduced. Unlike in Europe, the British government would not give Africans political representation until the international and domestic pressures mounted in its finals years of colonial rule.
During this time, other European powers were focused on African assimilation and the call for independence within their settler colonies. England on the other hand, did not put much emphasis into the assimilation of Africans and were more focused on the negotiations for a political independence. Due to England’s assimilation policies and growing domestic pressures, they found it easier to separate from their settler colonies. Yet, some colonies wanted to maintain trade and develop aid with Britain, but with England’s weak emphasis on assimilation they were not rooted in the policies of their settler colonies. Because England lacked this cultural aspect, England’s...

...Examine the economic arguments used to explain the partition of WestAfrica.
In the late 1880s, only limited areas of Africa were subjected to the direct rule of Europeans. However, the next 20 years saw an increase in the confiscation of African colonies by the Europeans and by 1914 the partition of Africa had been consolidated. By 1914, with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia, the whole of Africa had been partitioned and occupied by the imperial powers of France, Britain, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain and Italy, and colonialism was implemented. However, by 1918 Germany lost its African colonies and they were distributed among the other European powers. Lenin and Hobson both argue that the partition of westAfrica was highly economically motivated. These two scholars economic motives are somewhat similar to each other but Lenin argues more firmly that the crisis was one of finance capital and the development of "monopoly capitalism / oligopoly capitalism". In addition, it may be interpreted that though the partition of WestAfrica can be seen as largely for economic motives, it is acknowledge that there were other factors, which led to the partitioning of WestAfrica.
The French conquered most of the territory of WestAfrica. They established control over the...

...Jadah Morrison
10-8-2013
6th hour
Colonial Development
In the Colonial period Native Americans and White Landowners each viewed
Quakers in completely different views. I hope to explain that the Quakers and the
Indians shared more similarities, than there counterparts the White Landowners. The White
Landowners saw them always superior and looked down on the Quakers, where the Indians
shared more problems and needed their help as they they could relate to the Quakers, somewhat.
The Quakers and the Indians in the 18th and 19th century related to their religion especially those found in the east. The Native Americans had different morals of the French and the British, example, the Huron tribe was considered a tribe to do business with by the French. The Huron tribe did not like the British. The Huron joined the French because they thought that the French were more powerful. The Huron were selfish and heartless and they would kill them if they didn’t accept their job. The Huron felt they could manipulate French and they would let them keep their land. Huron knew that the Mohicans, were on the British side. Overall, the Native Americans viewed he colonists very carefully. The...

...INTRODUCTION
Since independence, WestAfrica states have maintained close political and economic ties with their former colonial powers. During the colonial era, the colonial administrators successfully imposed and impressed their alien pattern and orientation in the socio¬-political and economic affairs of West African countries. West African economic affairs were distorted to an extent that two decades after independence, all the countries are very much dependent economically on their former colonial administrators. Post-colonial African economies are replete with the scars of the uneven and exploitative nature of colonialism. Despite the abundant resources of Africa, African countries are among the least developed and industrialized nations in the world. Thus, it cannot be denied that the post-colonial African economics are, by and large, a function of their colonial past. The colonial economics were directly linked to the economics of their respective metropolitan powers through an array of policies ranging from control of currency, trade policies and infrastructure.
Thus after independence, one of the problems of the new independent states was the struggle to break the colonial economic system inherited at independence. Under the colonial economy, these...

...The statement made by Conrad’s narrator, Marlow, “No, they were not inhuman” is very significant in terms of colonial discourse. My understanding of colonialism is that it was a period of intolerable treatment (by today’s standards) of anyone of non-European origin, both through text and verbal communication. This is true for recent and modern times; Ania Loomba makes a very clear point that even the definition of colonialism is not accurate in the Oxford English Dictionary. She writes that the dictionary “quite remarkably, avoids any reference to people other than the colonisers” (1) suggesting that we (Europeans) ignore what we did to the original inhabitants of a ‘newly settled’ country. Today’s definition reinforces Loomba’s claim; colonialism is “the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically” (“Colonialism”). Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness aimed to bring this injustice to light but Conrad had to be careful in how he chose to expose the racist views of the European at the time. Although we do not see much, in fact we see nothing, of any African points of view and there are only two events where an African actually speaks in the whole novella, Conrad manages to highlight the inequality forced upon the Africans by European Colonisation. This highlighting is evident through the subtle change in perspective of Marlow toward...

...Regions such as Africa, the Middle East, India, and Africa were severely impacted positively and negatively by the imperialism of the west. Two of those cultures that were affected in a very similar way during this time period by the effects of imperialism were Africa and India. In both places wars and violence occurred but new technologies were brought by the west that helped improved the civilizations. However Africa and India responded differently to the way the west imposed there economic, social and political ways upon the people.
From 1870 to 1890 a very important event occurred known as the "Scramble for Africa". European powers attempted to acquire as much African territory as they could get there hands on. Men such as King Leopold the Second of Belgium singed treaties with local chiefs that granted them personal control over the land. He exploited the Africans living in the Congo River valley for there labor. He forced them to collect sap from rubber plants as well as other back breaking work. The people were over taxed and abused. This operation benefited the Belgium economy greatly but added nothing but poverty to the African economy. In 1884 the German Chancellor Bismarck organized the Berlin Conference in order to divide up Africa in a civilized matter between Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, and Italy....

...African History
18 March 2011
History of Trade Influence in WestAfrica
Trade has played an important role in the history of the West African region. Trade shaped the region in two main ways. Trade worked as a catalyst for the rise of nearly every empire in the region from its’ earliest times to present day. Also, the growth and spread of trade routes brought in an immense amount of culture with it as well.
Trade is and has been a reason for organization in all parts of the world from the days of the barter system all the way to the mass production and retail trade that we see today. It is especially important in WestAfrica, where control of the trade market means control of the region. By about 3000 B.C, climate change had caused much of the Sahara to dry up. Due to the now lack of resources and harsher climate conditions, trade now took on a more important role in society. With trade comes economic growth, which brings on the need for security and thus the need to form a formal state. No state could rise above the others without the control of the trade. The first state to do so in the region was the empire of Ghana. The empire of Ghana finds its’ origins with the Soninke people in the north and upper waters of the Niger River around the 3rd century A.D. These people rose to power by acting as middlemen for the Berber chiefs and Arab traders north, and the gold and ivory...

...﻿Colonial South Africa
Timeline
1652: Dutch East India Company established settlement at Cape Town
1795: First British occupation of the Cape
1806: Second British occupation of the Cape
1835: Beginning of Great Trek as Dutch farmers known as voortrekkers left eastern Cape in search of more land
1852: Britain recognised independence of the South African Republic
1899-1902: Boer War (South African War), between the Dutch farmers and British
Britain and the Boers:
The British were major players in the ‘Scramble for Africa’
Britain possessed the diamond fields
British army defeated both the Zulus and Pedi between 1878 and 1881
Boers defeated a British force at Nayubain in 1881
The Dutch arrival:
1652: The Dutch arrived with the Dutch East Indie Company near Table Bay, South Africa.
1770: 9/10 Khoikhoi people (South African tribe) were wiped out by European diseases such as small pox.
1779: the Dutch farmers had a war against the ‘black’ farmers, the Xhosa people.
1780: over 10,000 Germans, French and Dutch had cattle in South Africa with the Khoikhoi people including children as their servants.
During this time many mixed or ‘coloured’ children were born to Khoikhoi mothers and Dutch fathers. Though coloured people were not accepted in the Dutch society.
The British arrival:
1815: in order to protect the sea route to India (Britain’s strongest colony) the British took over Cape from...